Deep Learning Illustrated: A Visual, Interactive Guide to Artificial Intelligence by Jon Krohn
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book helped me get into Deep Learning. This is a high-level overview that any software engineer will desire as we try to understand “this new world” (even as of 2019). The terms in new-world are used in multiple Medium articles, and github.io pages and github.com READMEs, and we wonder what any of these have to do with solving the problem, how does it fit in, etc. This book took a top-down approach to explain it all and help me made sense of every article that I read about Deep Learning, Convolutional Neural Networks, and Artificial Intelligence as of 2019. I like to thank the Authors for their invaluable and accessible contribution to this field of AI and Neural Networks.

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Docker: Up and Running by Karl Matthias
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I picked this book to gain some structured knowledge of docker. I had done a costly mistake with docker, and I realized, it was because my knowledge of docker was mostly by trial and error, reading the docs and trying it out.

The book focusses on operational aspects of docker. This is perhaps aimed at the beginners of docker who want to pick and learn the commands. Experienced users might find that this book goes more into breadth than depth.

I am a CNCF certified Kubernetes administrator now.

I did not clear the exam in the first attempt, came close to clearing in the second attempt, did a horrible docker mistake in my third attempt. In my third attempt I ran a sleep 3600 when with -it flag flag on for docker run, and I could not exit or kill the shell.

Finally, cleared the exam in my fourth attempt. It is fun a exam for someone interested in Kubernetes to take.

Kubernetes: Up & Running by Kelsey Hightower
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book is from the pioneers of the Kubernetes world. The authors explain the design elements of Kubernetes pretty well. It was enjoyable to read this book.

Kubernetes Cookbook: Building Cloud Native Applications by Sebastien Goasguen
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is a useful book, aimed towards the beginners of Kubernetes. The cookbook recipes could help reinforce the concepts that we learn in Kubernetes in a practical manner.

Kubernetes in Action by Marko Luksa
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book explained the concepts behind Kubernetes well. It just did keep itself at the level of a book for an operator of Kubernetes and went into explaining what is happening underneath quite well.

They Called Us Enemy by George Takei
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book is a straightforward narration by Georgia Takei of a Japanese Internment by the US Government during World War II. George and his family had suffered this cruelty. He highlights how opportunistic senators took chances to rise to power by promoting racial discrimination.

I had not known about this part of US history. I also did not know how ACLU helped the Japenese in the US then. US had detained 250,000 Japanese families living in the US, many of them US citizens, into camps during WWII.

Having lived through this horror, a lot of these Japanese families restarted and rebuilt their lives again. George Takei turned to activism to share his story with the masses, and I think he has been very effective.

This book has come the right time when similar mistreatment is being carried out by certain opportunistic politicians.

The Mahabharata: A Shortened Modern Prose Version of the Indian Epic by R.K. Narayan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The Mahabharata is one of the most complex stories I have ever read. I read this book following The Ramayana by R.K.Narayan. The ethical dilemmas presented in this story is at a whole different level than Ramayana. While in Ramayana, there are good guys and bad guys in Mahabharata there is nothing like that.

No one is entirely good or no one is entirely bad. The Pandavas and Kauravas are brothers, just competing against each other, but their quarrel reaches to a level for war.

Coming to the war, which is an important topic of this story, the book has 3 chapters dedicated to the avoidance of war and only one chapter for the war.

In spite of suffering all the atrocities presented by Duryodhana, Pandavas realize that war is not good for anyone, and try for multiple attempts to prevent the war. Duryodhana plays politics and chooses to listen, and highlight points only which could give a chance for war.

And when it comes to war, Pandavas understands that a deterministic outcome is achieved by eliminating everyone in the enemy camp, even babies. So, after trying to avoid war, when the war becomes inevitable, Krisha proposes and leads a _genocide_ against the Kaurava clan.

To me, the most complex characters in this story were that of Karna and Krishna.
Karna has chances to prevent war, he understands his background well but still chooses to side with Duryodhana. Krishna is one who leads the Pandavas to war and gives guidance "on duties" in ambiguous times.

There is no good or a bad person in this entire story.

India has a Online Digital Library for everyone: https://ndl.iitkgp.ac.in

When I created an account, it asked me about my Education Level, and gave me a choice for "Life Long Learner"

Appreciate it!

I ordered Pizza using terraform today. I was learning about terraform and how provider can be anything, even Software as a Service, which is basically an API.

So, it made possible to develop software like terraform-provider-dominos using which you can order Pizza. I tried it. The terraform apply crashed for me, but I knew that terraform might have attempted the purchase operation and had probably crashed due to slow response from the API. It was the case. I saw my credit card charged in my account, an order confirmation email, and in 30 minutes, I got my pizza.